About Units

Calories: Calories (cal) are a unit of energy. Specifically, they are defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. In nutrition, calories measure the energy content of food, with 1 food calorie (kcal) being equal to 1,000 small calories.

Therms: Therms are a unit of heat energy equal to 100,000 BTUs. This unit is commonly used to measure natural gas consumption. In the energy industry, therms are used to describe the energy content of natural gas and to bill for its consumption.